Mr. Fujiwara makes the complete knife from start to finish. For the blade, he uses a proprietary #1 Blue high carbon steel made by Hitachi called Chigusa-kou forged laminated between two layers of stainless steel. Chigusa-kou has a higher carbon content and added elements. The blade is then hardened to Rockwell 65-66 andd attahced to an Ebony handle. Each knife is fully sharpened to a razor edge. Blade length is 4¾˝ overall length is 9˝. A History of Fujiwara Hamono
Over 130 years ago, Teruyasu Fujiwara the first began his career as a master black smith making farm tools. When his son Fujiwara the second was of age, he was apprenticed to the famous Tokyo sword smith Masahide Suishinshi. After some years of training, he retuned to his father’s shop and commenced to make swords.
The family continued this tradition until sword making was restricted after WWII. At this point the Fujiwara's were forced to make knives in addition to two swords a month to make a living. For a time, they became very famous for their knives used in the manufacture of Tatami mats.
But by the end of the 1960’s Tatami knives were no longer needed due to automation of Tatami manufacturing. So they decided to make kitchen knives. They were determined to recover family fortunes by making the very best quality kitchen knives possible.
To this end, they spent the next ten years developing the steel and techniques necessary to forge weld stainless steel with high carbon steel and then properly temper harden the blade. It took all of the knowledge gain by the family from more than 100 years of forging swords to successfully produce their current offering of kitchen knives.
For the last 10 years, Fujiwara the fourth has continued the family tradition.
Fujiwara knives have been endorsed by many professional chefs including Mr. Kunio Fukazawa of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.
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